Columbia Records History to be Released as Book

COLUMBIA THE BOOK: Columbia Records will celebrate its 125th anniversary with a coffee table book, 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story, written by Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy-nominated author/historian Sean Wilentz. The tome, published by Chronicle Books, "provides a journey through the label’s history and its contributions to entertainment from the invention of commercial recording through the present-day," and will be released Oct. 30. The story begins in the late 1880's, when Columbia, under the leadership of Edward Easton, seized upon the phonographic inventions of Thomas Edison to offer the public the first commercial musical recordings. At the same time, the label will release a deluxe package, which will include, in addition to a hard cover copy of the Wilentz book, a separate book, written by Dave Marsh, entitled 360 Sound: The Columbia Records Story: Legends and Legacy. Marsh has culled a collection of 263 songs and tracks of the greatest historical, as well as musical, significance, offering his thoughts on each. The deluxe package, which includes a crafted hard drive featuring every one of the discussed recordings, will also be available as an e-book through multiple platforms. (7/30p)